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This isn't like any other game except Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It's not a reaction to or comment on anything, but a realistic look at medieval life and the magic of The Lord of the Rings using the historical and social sciences knowledge of the 1970's. Nobody's going to tease you if your character isn't traditionally male, but we're playing a game which limits the strength of female characters. There is a minimum strength requirement for paladins and I will lower that by 1 for females. Joan of Arc was a thing.

I hew closely to the rules in this game. Characters will be rolled at the table and only the DM has access to the Dungeon Master's Guide. I have enough Players Handbooks that you shouldn't try to make your character using an app. We'll actually start by randomly rolling your character's background skill and noting their height and weight, in a general way. You may not wish to choose a race at this early point. A lot of games have gone to calling that heritage: in AD&D, species would have been a better choice. Humans are, on average, taller and heavier than the demihuman races.

The game is humanocentric. Humans live in the center of the map; demihumans (good) and humanoids (evil) come from farther out. I will brush over the capacity of the ignorant for intolerance, just mentioning it from time to time when a character who is "different" arrives in a new area.

Game balance props up the human position by limiting demihuman advancement in all classes except the ignoble one of thief. Multiclassing can give these characters magical or better martial capability, and they possess special, innate abilities which make them very valuable in the party. However, the "best" classes are limited to humans, with a hybrid rule which allows half-elves (primarily) to possess the abilities of a cleric or fighter and progress to a limited extent in a favored subclass.

I don't want a bunch of demihuman clerics running around, as those races' religions aren't evangelistic. As a DM, however, I don't have a problem with a house rule allowing an elven cleric/magic-user or dwarf fighter/cleric. (Only half-orcs can be cleric/thieves, which is allowed, but it's hard to roll stats low enough to be a half-orc!) Leveling is slow with a single class and slower with more, and I will make you work super-hard for every magic item you find.

Hobbit fighter/thieves are probably the most effective multiclass demihumans. Thieves die a lot, especially at lower levels, and everybody in my game cuts them a lot of slack, so they can level up faster. Somebody can always die. The traps in AD&D are brutal, and the closest thing to a Challenge Rating is some advice I can give you: don't go to a dungeon level higher than your character level!